Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Sexual Identity

I thought this was very relevant to what we have been looking at over the semester due to his attitudes towards describing himself as gay. He did not come out as simply gay but a Gay American, he tries to signify that the idea of being an American unites everyone in one community but then gives yourself an identity through which community you chose to associate yourself with similar to those of a Latino or African American community. He also mentions the tense associated with the mixture of these two identities and how they can be connected together such as rights and way of life. He even mentions how difficult it is to show his pride and enjoyment in being gay but also his honour of being American which many would state cannot be achieved. America has many very strong anti-gay views and would state that you cannot be an honourable American if you are also gay. I think this interview portrays exactly how gays in America still struggle with being accepted and have not as Livingstone states “won the fight”. The fact that he has been the only openly gay state governor in American history says everything about the attitudes towards gays. Maybe “the struggle is clearly not what it was” for the everyday person but for those in high profile positions within society I think it may still well be.